A word from LIz

Liz (as she has asked to be identified) writes in response to the post we have updated and corrected below: “Covering up the home front in Iraq?” Liz refers to the version of the NPR report that we originally linked to in the post, though we subsequently learned that NPR also broadcast a longer, eight-minute version of the report including interviews of four families of deployed Minnesota National Guard soldiers.
Liz refers throughout her message to the Minnesota National Guard unit’s “FRG,” or Family Readiness Group. Liz’s comments add an important dimension to the discussion of the NPR report. She writes:

Hi. My husband is part of the 1/34 ID. I saw the “Home Front” post via Fraters Libertas. Here’s my response to some of your reader’s questions:
How can it be that a reporter of the stature of John McChesney drove 700 miles, interviewed members of seven families, and came back with less than two minutes of content, and less than half of which is an interview with just two of the presumably seven wives he spoke to?
The FRG I attend was contacted in early March to be part of this project. Since we had our FRG meeting the day after the initial contact, we declined. Basically what these people (and all media, for that matter) do is contact the Family Assistance Center to get FRG leader contact info. It